“We need a good lawyer in town. Anything you need. Let me know. Welcome to the family, son.”
Lawrence couldn’t help grinning at the man who wore a yellow shirt with a red tartan bow tie. Without another word, he jogged off in search of Victoria.
She wasn’t hard to find. She wasn’t hiding at all. She was sitting stiffly on the wall beside the loch, just out of sight of passersby. Her arms were around her waist and she was curled in on herself, as though she hoped to become as small as possible until she disappeared entirely. Lawrence hated the sight.
He felt her stiffen as he sat down beside her. He didn’t touch her, unsure what the reception would be. She didn’t look at him, but he noticed she tried to sniff discreetly to hide her tears. For a long time, they sat side by side, looking out over the water. The grey of the vista was soothing. The air still heavy after the storm. The sounds of gently lapping waves and ever-present gulls were a balm to open wounds. Lawrence fought the urge to pull the woman who had become important to him
into his embrace. He wanted to fix things for her. At the very least, carry her pain. But all he could do, he knew, was be there for her.
“You were terribly young.” Too young to stand up against her parents.
She jerked at his words, and for a moment he thought she might ignore him. Her eyes stayed firmly on the water as she spoke. “I’d just turned fifteen.” She gave a very unladylike snort. “I thought myself in love. We had one night together before he disappeared. Father paid the family off. He told me it was an awful cliché to get knocked up by the help.”
He knew from the look on her face she wasn’t seeing the loch anymore. She was watching her past.
“You must have been afraid.”
Victoria stared at him for a long time, her eyes welling with fresh tears. But they didn’t fall. She cleared her throat. “I didn’t have anyone to lean on. I was sent to finishing school in Switzerland, or at least that’s what everyone was told. It was a clinic. Private. Very exclusive. I stayed there for the whole pregnancy.”
“Alone?” Lawrence wanted to hurt Victoria’s mother so badly it ate at him.
“Of course.” Victoria looked back out over the water. “My parents turned up a month before the baby was due. They had a team of lawyers in their wake. The papers were already drawn up. They were going to take my baby, raise her as their own. I would be allowed to spend time with her, under the proviso I never revealed our true relationship. If I didn’t agree, the baby and I would be cut off without a penny. All family connection would be withdrawn. I would have been asked to leave the clinic and have the baby elsewhere. They did say they’d take me back to London. It was their only concession. Although they made it very clear that once in the city, I would be on my own.”
Lawrence couldn’t take it anymore. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her into him. His anger towards her parents was a visceral thing. He wished he could rip them apart with his bare hands.
“I signed away my baby.” Her whispered words were warm against his chest.
“Of course you did.” He squeezed her hard. “They didn’t give you a choice. You were a child. How would you survive alone with a baby?”
She pushed back and looked up at him. “You don’t hate me for making the decision to give her to them?”
Tears bit at his eyes as expletives fell from his lips. “Of course I don’t hate you. Why would you think that?”
Silent tears fell down her cheeks, cracking his heart with each one. “I did a terrible thing. I gave my baby away. I let her believe that people who didn’t love her were her parents. I let her suffer. They were so cold to her. So horrible, and I stood back allowing it. I hurt her. I should never have given her away.” Her voice broke as she buried her face in his shirt and sobbed.
Lawrence soothed her with meaningless words mumbled as he stroked her. Rage at the people who damaged those they should have loved and protected the most was a fire inside him. He buried it deep. Promised he’d ruin them at a later date. Right now, Victoria needed him.
A noise behind them drew his attention, and he stilled, ready to protect Victoria from gawkers. It was Dougal. He held a tray. It had takeaway cups with warm drinks, bottles of water and a plastic-covered plate of cookies. Without a word, the man placed the tray beside them, smiled softly at Victoria and left. In that moment, Lawrence knew they’d found a real home. Him and Victoria both. They belonged in Invertary.
“Here, darling, have a drink.” He reached for one of the warm cups and held it out to her. “You’ll feel better.” He noticed Dougal had left a pack of tissues on the tray, and silently blessed the man.
As Victoria held the drink, he used a tissue to wipe her tear-stained face.
“Sip,” he ordered.
She did as she was told, and for some reason he hated to see her obey. His woman had spent her life obeying orders. Terrified of being cast out and rejected if she didn’t. It would take time, but he’d teach her there was nothing wrong with standing up for herself. She wouldn’t lose him if she did.
“You did a good thing today, darling,” he told her as he held her close. “You stood up to your mother. You gave her a reason to stop her pursuit of Abby. You made sure Abby didn’t lose her daughter the way you lost yours. You were very brave. I’m proud of you.”
She leaned into him. So small and fragile in his arms. How she’d managed to live under the evil will of a tyrant and still manage to keep a semblance of herself, he had no idea.
“She must hate me.”
He knew she didn’t mean Millicent. “I don’t think Abby has it in her heart to hate anyone.”
“I wouldn’t blame her.” She held the warm cup tight to her chest. “I tried in the beginning. To love her. To spend time with her. I would read to her. Cuddle her. Play with her. She was amazing. Beautiful, warm, loving. She was perfect, Lawrence, utterly perfect.” She wiped at her eyes. “I remember how it felt to wrap her tight in my arms. I never wanted to let her go. I hated being apart from her. I’d cry for hours when we were separated. I loved her so much,” she whispered. “She was my baby.” She looked up at Lawrence. “I still love her so much my heart aches with it, but over the years it became easier to be distant. It hurt too much trying to be close when I knew I could never be what she needed.”
“I know, my darling, I know.”